Paul King awarded Best Screenplay at Writers’ Guild Awards

Winners Revealed At Gala Event Celebrating The Best Of British Writing

Paddington, Veep, River City and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture also amongst winners

Acclaimed writer and producer, Russell T Davies, was this month presented the coveted Outstanding Contribution to Writing Award at the annual Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Awards at RIBA, in London.

The award was presented by Paul Abbott – celebrated writer and creator of numerous TV hits such as Shameless and State of Play – to Davies in honour of his illustrious body of work for TV including critical and popular successes such as the seminal Queer as Folk, the hugely successful revival of Doctor Who, and recent innovative drama trilogy; Cucumber, Banana and Tofu.Davies and Abbott are both members of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB).

Of his win, Davies said: “For me, this is the greatest of honours, coming from fellow writers, and I’m enormously grateful to the Writers’ Guild – for this, and for the work it does for writers everywhere.”

Comedian, actor and writer Susan Calman hosted the event honouring the cream of British film, TV, theatre, radio and gaming writing talent in front of an audience from a broad range of creative industries.

Russell T Davies honoured for Outstanding Contribution

Other winners included Paul King who was awarded Best Screenplay for the heartwarming hit film Paddington; Armando Iannucci’s critically acclaimed Veep won Best TV Situation Comedy; Timberlake Wertenbaker took home the award for Best Play for American Revolution drama Jefferson’s Garden; Best Long Running TV Series went to Scottish soap River City and Louise Ironside and Best Writing in a Video Game was won by Dan Pinchbeck for celebrated first-person adventure game, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.

Caitlin Moran arrives at the Writers’ Guild Awards

A special tribute was also made to Writers’ Guild member David Nobbs, who died on 8 August 2015 and was best known for writing the 1970s series The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, adapted from his own novels. Novelist and writer Jonathan Coe, whose novel What a Carve Up! was adapted by David Nobbs, gave a speech in his memory.

WGGB President Olivia Hetreed said of the event: “As President of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, I am immensely proud of all our Award winners and nominees, a truly impressive display of talent, from the ancient art of playwriting to the youngest one of game writing. All our winners display not only a superb grasp of their craft but tremendous insight and empathy with the challenges of modern life.

“The Writers’ Guild has been supporting writers for over 50 years, in their everyday working lives, in times of crisis and triumph. Writers today face many difficulties, we can meet them more strongly together.”

Best Long Running TV Series
Winner: River City, Series 13, Episode 8 by Louise Ironside
Shortlisted: Holby City, Series 17, Episode 50 “At First I was Afraid” by Julia Gilbert, Emmerdale, Episode 7188/89 by Maxine Alderton

Best Writing in a Video Game
Winner: Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture by Dan Pinchbeck
Shortlisted: Her Story by Sam Barlow, Sunless Sea by Alexis Kennedy, Richard Cobbett, Amal El-Mohtar, Chris Gardiner, Meg Jayanth and Emily Short